Friday, 16 November 2012

Bringing up baby: 16 November 2012

Tilly arrived home, courtesy of Ah Gong. For a brief moment he had been left alone, in the car, with the engine running, and unbuckled. I must warn Ah Gong not to let that happen again. My imagination fails to envision anything good from a repeat situation.Tilly promptly wanted to go out again. Daddee had said it was too late for Tilly to be out. Tilly manoeuvred his way out the door and onto the steps. He refused to answer me when I asked him if he wanted to go out.I must remember this trick of his, where he doesn't reply and does what he wants. I've been the recipient of this many times - such as when he wanted to read a book before going grocery shopping. I suppose I do it to him, when he demands something from me I can't give, and I do what I want.I picked him up, and told him that as he hadn't said 'yes' to my question, he was going into the house. He protested abundantly. I asked him the question again, and he answered "Yes."So we - as a family - arranged it so I accompanied Tilly on his expedition. He was very very good. We had to turn back to get my phone, and he was quite understanding.He and I sauntered down the shared driveway. We meandered to the neighbour's flowers. I explained to Tilly that he couldn't pick *those* flowers as it was someone else's garden. He unhanded the stalk and walked away.We sauntered some more along the road. He saw some more flowers. But they had closed up, and gone to sleep for the night. We saw a bumble bee, having dinner before going to bed.We walked again, hand in hand. Tilly wanted to go to the curb. I decided this quiet time was a good time to reinforce road rules. No playing by the curb. He was fascinated by the tree on the other side. I asked whether he wanted to climb the tree. He said yes, but didn't make the move to cross the road. I asked if he wanted to be picked up to cross the road, and he agreed. We had a nice time there. "Big!" he remarked of the tree. "Big!" (I love his exclamations.)"Big!" "Big!"Then he had enough and we returned to the first side and continued the route. I still wasn't sure how far we'd be going.Naive me. By this time the playground was visible. "Tree!" Tilly coyly declaims. Uh huh, right. You are fascinated by the trees at the playground...what a coincidence!Well, why not? I brought him to the tree on the hillock at the playground. He played along with the script, with a show of interest in the leaves in his hand. His head turned toward the swing at the first opportunity.He sat in the swing for a very long time. For a bit he wanted companionship in the other swing, and I complied. Then I just kept him swinging. We discussed cars, the colour of cars, and colours in general. Black, silver, blue, dark blue. I reminded him about the time, that people were going home, having dinner and going to bed.He stopped swinging after a while, and wanted some quiet time to investigate the metal safety chain belt. Then he looked up, "Horse!" This idea fixed in his head, he was content to leave the swing and go home. On our way, he didn't mention the cat, and I pointed out the cars. Quite a surprising number were red, or Hondas. We arrived home. He wanted to watch the Wizard of Horse. This was refused. He began to have a tantrum.I can't recall how this was staved off. The cow milk bottle, I think, and being held by Mummee.The bedtime routine ensued. We paraded upstairs. He with his milk bottle and cap; me with him, my large bowl and tissue box and his giraffe; Daddee with my half-finished mug of tea.Tonight Daddee was Parent Du Jour. Only he could read stories to Tilly.Tilly did get what he wanted: cat, Popple(tm), kea, giraffe, teddy bear, rocking horse, woollen blanket, horse scarf, house slippers, Mummee patting him to sleep, Daddee singing him to sleep.We got what we wanted: a sleeping baby.